After a frustrating Sunday on which I didn’t always play my best, I seriously considered taking Monday off. I had, after all, played poker, often a lot of it, every day for the past 12 days. But the weather was less than ideal and I didn’t have that much else to do and who can ignore a WCOOP tournament? I registered just four tournaments: the $300 2x Chance WCOOP, the $265 WCOOP Turbo Knock-Out, the Big $150, and the $200 2x Chance Second Chance, which I busted just a few minutes after the end of the rebuy period without ever using my rebuy.
Despite accumulating 6 bounties, enough to pay my buyin and then some, I didn’t cash in the Turbo KO, so for much of the day I was one-tabling the $300. I sure am glad I ended up playing it, because of the 2200+ who entered, only 22 remain, and I am 3rd among them! We resume play at 2PM Eastern today.
Obviously I had to run well to make it this far, but I do believe that I took some creative lines to extract maximum value with my big hands. Here’s one pivotal one:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 3000/6000 Blinds 750 Ante (8 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Button (t446697)
SB (t308587)
BB (t152437)
Hero (UTG) (t216530)
UTG+1 (t308548)
MP1 (t204342)
MP2 (t146740)
CO (t494589)
Hero’s M: 14.44
Preflop: Hero is UTG with 7♠, 8♠
Hero bets t12000, 3 folds, CO raises to t26750, 3 folds, Hero calls t14750
Flop: (t68500) 7♥, 5♥, 7♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets t25770, Hero calls t25770
Turn: (t120040) 10♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets t57895, Hero calls t57895
River: (t235830) 10♦ (2 players)
Hero bets t105365 (All-In), CO calls t105365
Total pot: t446560
Results:
Hero had 7♠, 8♠ (full house, sevens over tens).
CO had Q♦, A♣ (two pair, tens and sevens).
Outcome: Hero won t446560
This is a great example of what I wrote about in a recent 2+2 article, When A Scare Card Isn’t Scary. The T may seem like a bad card, in that a lot more combos of hands could now beat me. Realistically, though, Villain is extremely unlikely to have those hands, and this card is probably one of the best in the deck for getting paid off. An Ace or broadway card, while creating some second-best hands, may well slow him down with pairs smaller than that card. Likewise blank rivers may get me paid by pairs but not by Ax. With the board double-pairing on the river, I can make a suspicious-looking shove representing a counterfeited underpair and get called by both his pairs and his Ax. Maybe he would even call with less – I mean KQ will win just as often as AQ when he makes this call.
Congrats and gl!
In reviewing some of your posted hands this past week, I’ve noticed that you play quite a wide range preflop in the 10-15 M range. This hand is interesting for the line you took and your read on the river/according action, but I am just as interested in the pre-flop. With a speculative hand UTG and 29 bb, how are you sure to be profitable raising and calling a 3 bet when you’ll be OOP for the rest of the hand? I’m assuming that 87s is not played 100% of the time here at this stack size, but rather a way to balance your UTG range by mixing it in occasionally.
As for calling the 3b – is this call more dependent on who 3b or the sizing was just such that you felt you could continue profitably to the flop and maybe beyond?
TBH it’s possible that I get a little carried away in that regard, but I’ll stand by this particular open. The only way to make an open like this profitable is to have a good chance of stealing the blinds. It’s not like I’m just that eager to see a flop with 87s. The reason I’ll make this play with 87s rather than K3o is that sometimes I will see a flop. Often the BB calls since he’s getting such good odds, occasionally someone flats, or sometimes you get a tiny 3B like this when you can take a flop with 87s but couldn’t with a really junky hand like K3o.
Calling the 3B is mostly a pot odds thing. It matters a little bit just in that the guy can’t have a ridiculously strong range. Like if always has big pairs you have to fold anyway. But if his range is wide enough to include AQ and AK and occasionally some other stuff, then you can take a flop getting those kinds of odds.